In case you haven't been aware HTS is going through a recode process. The absolute bottom line is that the source code for the current production HTS has become unmaintainable. This is largely due to the absence of any design or architectural principals applied from the very start of it. Another problem with the current HTS is that development of it has become a severe point of contention with a very limited staff.

To address these problems, we have decided to make the recode open source. This will subject the project to peer review from the very beginning, identifying and eliminating bad design and failures to comply to standards in a far more sane manner. Not only will the code be open for public review but it will be open for public patch submission as well. This will allow anyone with a good idea or good eye for spotting bugs and improvements not only to identify them, but to fix them as well.

Execution------------

A reasonable chunk of the recode has already been completed. That being said, creating a monolithic public facing repository for the project would be a bit silly. Instead we will be segmenting the source tree into logical divisions and releasing them as independent open-source projects. This will allow much simpler integration and development for just about everyone.

+ The framework - (Blue Elephant) The framework will be it's own independent open-source project which will aim to be usable for any web application.+ The library - (libhts) The library will consist of a set of libraries that will enable a lot of the core functionality of HTS and also provide a skeleton tool set for creating challenge sites.+ The core - (hts) This will be what makes HTS independent as a site, primary development of this repository may not be public facing for a while.

The framework itself has already been rolled out as open source, you can find it's github repository here: https://github.com/hackthissite/BlueElephant . So go ahead fork it, start auditing it for security holes, inefficiencies and bugs. Feel free to submit patches and pull requests for review and acceptance into the repository.

The libary will be going open source as soon as possible so stay posted on updates for that

-Thetan

"If art interprets our dreams, the computer executes them in the guise of programs!" - SICP

“If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it” - Albert Einstein